Changing Spark Plugs

I was just about to put some new NGK iridium plugs in. Problem is, I just went to take the old ones out and the three plugs furthest from the front of the car are drowned in oil…Is this normal??? I didn't realise it would be such a bitch to get them out, a couple just won't shift, maybe cos theyve been in there so long... The ones at the back are really hard to get to as well :x

you may have too much oil in if you (or whoever last did the oil) didn't have the car on a dead flat surface…...or even checked the oil not on a flat surface...i may be wrong but surely oil does'nt just appear...it would dissappear if there was a problem

OK…I just tried taking a bit of oil out...NOT EASY! I had my old oil bottle ready to catch it, then unscrewed the sump plug and it started going everywhere except in the bottle! Luckily I had a bucket on standby so half went in the bucket, half went all over me and in my pit...! Anyway, I think I took a litre or 2 out hopefully..Quite hard to tell how much came out and I couldn't empty the whole thing as I have no fresh oil to refill it.

I'm going on the fact that the problem is definitely the fact that theres too much oil in there and fingers crossed it won't be all over the spark pugs tomorrow.

If your dipstick is reading that there is too much oil the only reason for that is because you put too much oil in it. :wink:

I would sort that out right away, just drian some out.

Think of it like this:
Imagine a boat propeller, sitting half in the water and half out. It would be splashing water all over the place.

Now imagine it completely submerged. It would be making waves but not splashing.

Now in an engine you need it to be splashing so that it can fling oil up underneath the pistons and keep it all lubricated.

Just clean off all oil by sparkplugs so is completely dry, then drain oil to a suitable level a bit below full. Give your bay a good clean so you can spot if anything is leaking. Then run it for a few days and see if it comes back.

look at girl racers post saying help! i have given her info on how to sort it out! if there is a good bit of oil and you have the balls suck it out with a straw… but for the love of god dont get it in your mouth!

u should be able to burn off a few cc of oil if it falls into the combustion chambers but i say SHOULD!

look at girl racers post saying help! i have given her info on how to sort it out! if there is a good bit of oil and you have the balls suck it out with a straw… but for the love of god dont get it in your mouth!

u should be able to burn off a few cc of oil if it falls into the combustion chambers but i say SHOULD!

I already made a little device with 2 straws, a plastic cup and some parcel tape, worked really well actually and it stopped any oil from getting near my mouth. Will get the remains out tomorrow with a rag and get those new sparkys in. Its gonna be v. awkward getting the back ones out, those holes are so damn deep!

The mx3s are know for having bad Valve cover gaskets, in fact they are crap.
If you pull your plugs out and they are drwoned in oil, (Usually the rear ones) please dont panick. We all have this problem specially if you are prone to flooring the car. you have two choices: taking the valve covers off and replacing the gaskets for new ones, or you can re use the old ones and use locktite liquid gasket to seal the gasket around the spark plug holes.

We have replace valve cover gaskets for new ones only to find out that within 2 months they are leaking again. So now we always use the liquid gasket just to reinforce the spark plug holes, this is the weakest point.

If you are driving around and you start to smell burning oil, this is probably the most common cause, you're rear valve cover gasket will leak from the backside and the drops of oil will run directly onto the rear exhaust manifold, so again dont panick, its not the block.

Over filling the block with oil is Bad….really bad as the other meassages explain....always fill on a level surface and always check the level when the block is cold, like first thing in the morning.